Considering everything, is computer science a good or bad major?

[Syandan21]

I am considering majoring in either this or electrical engineering, but I am worried because computer science is very popular, the job market is terrible, and also colleges might not except me, and that nvidia's CEO said that coding will be replaced by AI. Please help!!!

 

[jedishrfu]

CS is a good major. There are lots of jobs available. There are many fields of specialization.

But to hedge your bets, it would a good idea to augment your degree with some other field like business, engineering, mechatronics, physics, chemistry, biology / medicine.

These addon minors would enhance your chances of getting a job in more diverse fields. As an example, being a CS major with a medical background might make you more interesting to a medical devices company. CS major with physics or engineering would make you interesting to a aerospace company. CS with biology / chemistry to a pharmaceuticals company.

Pure CS limits you to computer technology or computer services type jobs. Even though these jobs are well paying and plentiful, one has to worry about how AI will affect them.

Basically, always have a backup plan and a backup to your backup plan.

 

[FactChecker]

IMO, it's not possible to know what the effect of AI will be on CS or EE for the next 40 years. Certainly, either will have a lot to offer for the next decade or two. I wouldn't worry too much about the Nvidia CEO statement. After all, who does he think would be doing the AI development? AI itself is going to change a lot.

 

[Vanadium 50]

the job market is terrible,

Why do you say that? Certainly the days when you didn't have to be any good at it to get a job are ending. But things that can't go on forever, don't.

colleges might not except me

Accept.

But if you don't get in, isn't the decision made for you?

nvidia's CEO said that coding will be replaced by AI

Already happened. Your computer doesn't run human-written code. It doesn't even run your CPU's "native" code. It's translated twice, and no human being ever sees the actual mictocode that the CPU runs. And it's been this way for 30 or 35 years.

However, there still needs to be a human to specify what the problem is. That won't go away.